National Engineering Day: Tilly Spice’s story

Tuesday 1 November

Hi, my name’s Tilly Spice and I’m a Project Engineer for our Renewable Development team, focusing on Biomethane, but my spare time is currently taken up by studying for an Engineering degree through the Open University, sponsored by SGN. Full time work and 16 hours a week study isn’t easy! 

Today I’ll be talking about my career journey and how I ended up in Engineering. I didn’t start in this kind of role and without the support of the company and my managers, I wouldn’t be where I am now. 

My SGN journey 

I started off in 2014, working in Maintenance Projects for four years and then in 2018 I moved to Diversions in Network Planning. 

In Maintenance, I supported the project team, but while this role wasn’t operational, the team were brilliant at getting me involved in technical training – courses like High Pressure Connections, Introduction to Pipeline Corrosion, Construction and Cathodic Protection and The Management of Pre-Construction Health & Safety Information Gas. 

Before I did these courses I’d never have seen myself as an engineer – I was good at maths at school but I didn’t carry this on after leaving.      

Studying and moving to biomethane 

I’ve been so lucky that I’ve always had amazing support from my managers and the teams around me, pushing me to grow and develop. I was introduced to other colleagues who’d done the Uni course and this was when I started to see it as a possibility for me.  

I’m now three years in and some aspects have been more challenging than I expected.  

Firstly, the level of maths required is so advanced but also the added impact of Covid – the degree has been delayed by a year and some parts, which were meant to be face-to-face, ended up being on Teams. We got experiment packs sent out with everything we’d have had in the lab to follow along at home instead! 

Earlier this year I moved into my current role in biomethane – I’m so excited to be involved in renewable energy, which is going to be such an important part of our future as a country.  

Whether it’s biomethane or hydrogen, I can definitely see myself staying in renewables development – it’s something I’m so interested in and that was a big reason I wanted to do the Engineering degree to begin with. 

My advice to others wanting to do an Engineering degree 

• Dip your toe in before you commit. Talk to others who’ve done it or get involved in smaller courses like an NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) rather than diving straight into the degree. Even try out some of the operational course I was involved in, if they make sense for your job role.
  
  
• Find out what support is available. If I hadn’t had supportive managers – pushing me to be my best and giving me time off to accommodate the residential parts of the course – I can’t imagine how difficult it’d be to try to study alongside working. Getting the course paid for made all the difference too.
  
  
• Don’t be afraid. I realised when I started talking to others in the Open Uni that they came from all walks of life and it was reassuring to find I wasn’t alone in not having an engineering background! 

There are a lot of barriers for women going into engineering. In tutorial groups of 30 on my course, invariably 27 will be men.  

I’m pleased that SGN is setting up a new Women’s Network to help women in their career development and have already signed up to be involved. I’m hoping that sharing my story might help other women start to see that a career in engineering is a possibility. 

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